No discussion of infantry fire combat can be complete without some mention of that heretical school of thought which alleges infantry firefights to have been largely sham affairs, infantry fire being next to worthless as a means of working material destruction upon the foe.
Interestingly, there exists marked disagreement among subscribing theoreticians as to the cause of this putative phenomenon.
Maurice de Saxe, writing in the 1730's, blames the system of volley fire for the poor results obtained from the fire of line infantry, relative to those obtained from the "voluntary" fire practiced by skirmishers. The physical and nervous strain of awaiting the command to loose a volley, says he, makes accuracy impossible.
The 19th century analyst Ardant du Picq, on the other hand, claims that volley fire would be devastating if actually used, but that human nature forbids it. The excitement of battle causes its degeneration into fire-at-will, each man firing madly, jostled all the while by the motions of those around him and startled by the discharge of their weapons. Under such conditions neither aiming nor even leveling can be expected. The fire of the third rank is lost entirely: the men fire into the air to avoid hitting their comrades in the front rank, who must stand to reload and cannot be induced to kneel again after the initial volleys.
But regardless of its material ineffectiveness, or the cause thereof, infantry fire is nevertheless of value in occupying the mind of the soldier, to distract him from his fear, and so to hold him in the ranks long enough to see the enemy opposite's morale give way - an effect produced by agencies other than losses from fire, which are too few to matter.
The fire of skirmishers might produce losses enough to matter, were it not directed mainly at other skirmishers.
As for the vaunted superiority in rounds-per-minute of Frederick's Prussians, its value lay in the illusion of destructiveness that it imparted to the minds of those delivering and facing it, with concomitant effects upon morale.
Infantry Fire and Wargame Design
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© Copyright 2002 by James J. Mitchell
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